In a stressful and overwhelming spring, with many long days spent alone in my stuffy home office, Alpine Trails Book Club has twice provided exactly the escape I needed to maintain my sanity. This time around, it our weekend away as much closer to home, and it was my turn to host a few members of our group Saturday night at Andy's family cabin near Lake Wenatchee. We left home to a light spring rain and arrived to sunshine, wildflowers, and an unholy number of mosquitoes at the cabin. Being so early in the year, I hadn't expected the tiny bloodsuckers and we'd come completely unprepared! Thankfully there was some (probably very old, but still functional) bug spray in the cabin, and others had thought to bring some. The smoky fire we built seemed to help too, but after an hour or so, a group of us fled to the park at the south end of Lake Wenatchee for a peaceful walk that provided an escape from the swarm. By the time we returned to the cabin for dinner, it had started to rain, but we didn't let that stop us from roasting sausages over the fire! Some strategically placed bark kept both the fire an our dinner dry while we hid on the covered deck of the cabin. Sunday morning, we packed up and headed for Leavenworth for a pre-hike coffee (with a fantastic view!) before meeting the group for our hike on Icicle Ridge.